I Am Very Here For Lesbian Circus Superheroes
Review: The First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson, also a collection from Danielle Ackley-McPhail and a comics crossover
Review: The First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson
Things I am there for: Lesbians, circuses, and superheroes.
So a lesbian circus superhero novel was absolutely going to get me. Set between the worlds, it tells the story of Rin (short for Ringmaster, and the only name she admits to) and her misfit circus of Sparks, people with powers. I’m calling it superheroes because they definitely “have powers” rather than “doing magic,” but the novel feels much more like an urban fantasy period piece than anything four color.
That is in part because this is really a novel about abuse. Rin was born Ruth, and she is hiding from The Circus King and his horror show of a circus, where his Sparks create what we all hope is fake snuff for their audience.
Meanwhile, Rin’s circus is one where her people use their powers to entertain. The shapeshifter turns into various animals. The healer, her wife Odette, is also a fantastic aerialist.
And Rin can go anywhere in time and space.
The Circus King isn’t just her competition, though. He is her…abusive ex husband. This unfolds through the book, piece by piece, through clever use of out of order narrative. Half of the cast is queer and all of them are…caught up in the, in my mind, inherent queerness of superheroes. And Ruth is ineffably Jewish and screwed up in a very Jewish way.
But World War II is on the horizon.
This book is brilliant. Until the ending. I admit, the ending let me down. It didn’t feel right. It didn’t match with the characters. The fact that you can’t fix everything was an important theme.
But also, just because you can’t fix something… I contrast this with C.L. Polk’s wonderful Even Though I Knew The End. The fate of one of the characters was all about running and hiding.
Despite this, it may be on my award list, because everything else was just so perfect. Recommended for, well…everyone else who loves lesbian circus superheroes. Or any one of those elements, really.
I received a copy of this book for review purposes.
Review: Dawns A New Day by Danielle Ackley-McPhail
This short collection contains just seven stories, all of which fall under either space opera or military SF. All of them are pretty good! (CW: One of the stories contains a slur used to refer to Roma people, used by a bad guy)
Dawns A New Day – Set after aliens decide to remove the competition humanity presents by destroying our advanced technology
The Steady Drone of Silence – What do you do if your invention goes rogue?
Travellin’ Show – A Roma in space story. Don’t mess with them.
Casualties of War – What do you do with the wounded enemy?
The Devil’s Own Luck – Really don’t mess with the Roma
No Man Left Behind – POWs have responsibilities
New Discoveries – A child on a colony world hopes to be more
The milSF stories are the best in this bunch, but it’s an interesting collection and a slim book. Recommended primarily to milSF fans, but there’s also some other fun stuff in here.
Comics
Avengers Assemble 2022-2023
It used to be that Marvel did crossover events about once a year. Now it seems as if they do three or four. Avengers Assemble is, though, another grand tradition:
Blowing up the Avengers and starting with a new line-up. Everyone has been an Avenger at some point…and this event has some fun with that. I mean…
…Galactus? They’ll let anyone in these days.
Unfortunately, the event is one big battle. It felt very one note, especially blitzing it. Maybe that wasn’t the best course of action? Maybe it works better spread out and read as it comes in, but I’ve started blitzing comics because otherwise I end up taking huge breaks and forgetting what happened. Ahem.
But yeah. One big battle and lots, and lots, of variants. We have Doom enslaving his other stuffs, multiple Phoenixes, and some interesting Thors. (Except…guys…Frigg is Odin’s wife, not…never mind. Marvelgard, I tell you).
With insanity…the power levels hit cosmic and blow right through it into ridiculous. Robbie Reyes is now the All-Rider (which explains how he has a car). One of the Dooms is a living planet. (That’s why they invite Galactus to the party. He’s hungry).
Logan with the Phoenix Force.
They just threw every possibility in, balls to the wall, some making more sense than others. I didn’t buy Mystique as Dark Phoenix, sorry guys. But some of those Dooms…not to mention what they did to/with Tony.
It’s fun, but it’s also in the old tradition of the giant Marvel crossover that’s basically just action with little space for anything else.
I do want to see more of the storm sisters, though.